Our boot camp program is almost over. I can't believe it's been almost 8 weeks!! We have one boot camp workout left on Friday. It's been a bit of a struggle. My health got in the way a bit, otherwise I think my results would be even better. With that said, I'm very happy with my results thus far. The workouts have not been easy. They have been pretty intense with increasing intensity each week.

Last night was my final workout with my personal trainer and I found out my final results for the eight weeks. I lost 3 pounds before starting the program, but during these past eight weeks, I've lost 15.6 pounds; almost 2 pounds a week. That puts my total for the year at 18.6 pounds, but I wasn't really trying to lose before the program. I've lost several inches, too. I've lost 6.5 inches in my chest, 3 inches in my bicep, 4 inches in my chest, 5 inches in my hips, 3 inches in my right thigh and 3.25 inches in my right calf. I'm very very happy!

Also, over the course of the past eight weeks, I went from a size 26 to a size 22. And my size 22's are already getting looser.

At out first personal training session, we did a little fitness test and I could do 10 push ups on my knees. I couldn't do a sit up. I could hold a plank for 10 seconds and static quat or wall squat for 30 seconds. At last nights fitness test, I could 3 military push up and 17 on my knees, 10 sit up (not crunches), hold a plank for 36 seconds and the wall squat for 1 minute and 15 seconds. That is amazing to me!!

When we started I struggled up and down our stairs and I was always very winded and out of breath by the time I got to the top. I also struggled to keep up with Jarom when we go somewhere and walk together. He often had to slow down to keep pace with me. I no longer struggle with our stairs. In fact, i can power right up them and I'm only slightly winded, but it only take a couple deep breaths to get my breathing back to normal. I can keep up with Jarom now, for the most part. I know he could still out-walk and out-pace me, but he doesn't have to slow down so much when we walk together to stay next to me, because I can keep up with him and not be out of breath to do so.

I still have a long way to go. I still want to lose another 100 pounds at least. But I'm sure once I get there I will want to lose the last 20 pounds, to be on the lower end of my weight range. This has been a great boost and motivator.

Our group has plans to stay together as much as possible to workout, share tips, encourage and motivate. I set up a Facebook group for all of us and we all have each others' email. We plan to have some reunions along the way too.

A big thanks goes out to my friend and neighbor, Leanne. She has been a huge help and one of my biggest cheerleaders. She told me about the boot camp program, brought me the application and returned it for me.

Thank you to my husband, too. He has been very supportive, but the ice cream and candy have been a struggle. It's hard enough to avoid those things, but after a conversation about it, he has been a help. He makes me think twice before I eat it.

Thank you to my group! You are all so wonderful! And knowing that we are all in this together, has been a huge help and motivator.

To our trainers, Jessie, Shane & Gabe, a very big thank you! You busted our butts, but gave us the encouragement to keep going and push harder each day.

Finally, to all my family and friends for all the words of encouragement through email, phone calls and FaceBook.

As I progress, I'll keep everyone updated. I'll try to post every couple weeks, my progress.

It has been one busy month rolling right into the next.

We spent President's weekend in Prineville, leaving the Wednesday before and coming home on President's Day on Monday. It was a great time! I really enjoyed myself and was relaxed, well, except for the two days Paul and Oriana were there. I'm just tired of the crap and I think all the siblings are for the most part. Jason wasn't there much when they were and Jenna disappeared upstairs after dinner, but we did family photos one night, visited, played games and stayed busy but also just enjoyed a relaxing weekend where we didn't have do anything or go anywhere.

The family pictures are a project I decided to take on and Carla and I talked about different poses that afternoon and everything. The main family photo of all of us will be the centerpiece and the larger photo and then around the edges we will have the five couples' photos and the all girls and all boys photos. I'm going to silkscreen the mats, now I just need to find the frames, touch up and crop the photos.

President's Day also brought some great news! I was able to get my unofficial CBEST score online at 5pm. I PASSED!! I rocked it!!! And I was so worried that I would have to redo the writing section. I did far better than the minimum scores on all three sections. That Saturday, my official score report and transcript arrived in the mail. Now, I just need to get busy taking the next steps to substitute teach.

I ended the month starting a boot camp at the Laguna Creek Racquet Club. It is an 8-week program, with boot camp three days a week for an hour on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Part of the program is also having a personal trainer and working with them once a week, which I do on Tuesday mornings at 9am. Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, we can work out however we want. Sundays will be my day off for church and family. Thursdays and Saturdays, I plan to do some work on the stationary bikes and some weight/strength training. We are in our second week of the eight and I lost 3.5 pounds last week. Last week, I was all kinds of sore. This week, I'm still sore, but not anything like last week. I'm continuing to hurt now, because I'm pushing harder and our workouts are gradually getting harder. This week, on Friday evening, we will have our first group meeting that will help with motivation, and education on eating and fitness. I hate getting up at 5am, but I feel great after each workout and it's helping me reach my goals.

I started doing some indexing work on FamilySearch.org. It has been sponsored and encouraged by our church. I first learned about it last summer, when Uncle Derek and Aunt Michelle talked about it, I was intrigued. I finally looked it up and read up on it. Last Friday was my first day and I did 50 names. I haven't had a chance to do any work since, but I plan on doing some tonight. I have a goal to index 50 names a day and I haven't been doing very well with that goal this week. I am really enjoying it though.

Finally, I have picked where I left off on the Lahr family calendar last year. I have had great success finding my great grandparents that I never knew and I've even found his siblings and his parents and aunts and uncles. The information I have found on FamilySearch has been amazing. After the family calendar is done, next year, I hope to start really doing some major genealogy work on the Lahr side of the family and hopefully create our family tree. The Lahr's (my mom's side) are German but I don't know where the Brady side come from yet. The Mitchell's (dad's side) is Irish and I can't remember where the Lewis/Barker clan is from. It's very exciting! I've always been interested in family history, not just mine but every one's. However, I've never really wanted to do any of the work-there is so much and it seems I'm always overwhelming myself. But, I think as long as I'm not working I can do some work each day and then when I'm teaching and working again, I will try to set a goal to indexed two or three times a week. I find it very fascinating!

Well, we both are a year older now, as our birthday have come and gone. My birthday was on a Sunday this year and Jarom and Mike took me to lunch at Marie Callender's. Originally, we were just going to get a pie for my birthday dessert, but decided to stay for lunch and had a nice time. We brought home their delicious Lemon Cream Cheese pie.

The following weekend, on the 5th, I had my CBEST exam. It was at 8am at Sacramento State University. After getting signed in, we finally started the four hour long exam at 8:45. Unofficial scores will post online after 5pm on the 21st, so I have a few more days, and even then, based on the wording, it will only be my math and writing scores. The official scores will be mailed out on the 24th.

I feel okay about it. If I have to redo anything it will be the writing part. By the time I got to it, I had an hour to write two essays. All I know going into it is that one will be an issue essay where I have to take a stand and the other will be an experience essay. I feel okay about the reading & comprehension section and really good about the math section. As I was doing it, I felt the practice exams I did had harder math and reading questions than the actual exam, so time will tell and we'll see how it goes.

Once I pass, I know someone at church that works for the Elk Grove School District as a vice principal is going to get me in touch with HR and I will apply for a substitute job. I want to substitute for a few years and get experience on my side in the classroom. From what I hear, you can work as much or as little as you want as a substitute. I want to work pretty much full time but I want to be able to take off to go home too, ans subbing will allow me to do that and work with any schedule.

When I got home from my exam, Aunt Teresa and Coley arrived just after me and we had some lunch before finish up the food prep for our birthday party that evening. The clam chowder, fruit salsa and cinnamon chip needed to be made, angel food cakes frosted/glazed, and get the rest of the food on the platters. We had clam chowder, cheese and crackers, fruit salsa with cinnamon chips that are baked, not fried. I had chicken marinating and we cooked that up and cut it into strips for Tandoori Chicken Sticks, marinated two kinds of Moroccan olives, and I cut vegetables the night before for a vegetable platter. We also had bruschetta. For desserts, we had an ice cream cake from Baskin & Robbins for Jarom. Leanne wanted an angel food cake, one of which we frosted with lemon frosting and one we glazed with a lemon glaze. I really wanted and had planned to make a croquembouche, but when it came down to it I just didn't have the time to do it. I'm still going to make it, but probably next week.

We celebrated three birthdays that night-mine on the 30th, Leanne's on the 4th and Jarom's on the 8th, since we are all so close. It was a really great time. Some of the guys played pool before the UFC fight started that we bought on PPV and had on upstairs. The kids and all us women, stayed downstairs and we danced with Just Dance 2 and visited. The kids also played with the pool balls when nobody was playing pool and I brought out some of my Barbies for them to play with, they also danced and did a little art project I had on hand since I didn't make it to get something specific. It was a great night and we really had fun!

The following Tuesday was Jarom's birthday, and I thought we'd go to dinner at the Outback but he came home and slept, so we didn't do anything. But, we did order him a couple books he wanted that should be there by the time we get home.

We left Wednesday, and came to Prineville for an extended President's Day weekend. The drive was okay, kind of long. We hit some snow, but for the most part the roads were clear. It got a little slick from Klamath Falls to about Chemult, but other than that it was clear. Another snow storm is blowing in over the weekend and then it should be clear when we drive home Monday just before the next storm comes to town. We went to lunch yesterday and I had a mini shopping spree at Bi-Mart. Today, I had another mini shopping spree at Bi-Mart. I got some yarn that I've been looking for and it was 2/$5 and I couldn't beat that price. I picked up a couple little gifts for Madysen and Trenton. I think we are going to dinner tonight. While we were out, I picked up some "boutique" beers from Wallace from a couple Oregon breweries and a bottle of Shiraz from Leanne from one of our Wineries. They are caring for Gus & Miss while we are gone and it is just our little thank you.

I finally started my work out last weekend. I had hoped to get started sooner, but I've just been so busy. And for not working out, and coming off the holidays, but trying to really be conscious of what I eat and only eat when I'm hungry, I had a great surprise last weekend when I played on the Wii.

I got onto the Wii after helping my neighbor with an IQ test she needed to administer on five people. She asked if she could administer it to me and I agreed. She brought Madysen over and she played Just Dance on the Wii and then colored, played Barbies and then bowled on the Wii. Before turning it off after they left, I decided to do a Wii Fit body test to see where I was and be ready for my first official workout of the year.

My great surprise is that I lost 3.1 pounds! I'm so excited. I was really trying to be so good this past holiday season with my portion control and eating only when I was hungry and trying to limit all the sweets and less healthy foods, so you could imagine my great pleasure to find that it worked well in my favor. I also lowered my BMI by one whole point, as well!

After doing the body test, it calculated my Wii Fit age and I LOVED the result! Normally, I am in the upper 40's. Last Saturday, I was 30!! And I'm going to be 32 next Sunday! Is that the coolest, best late Christmas present, early birthday present ever?? Now, I just need to keep it up and continue to lose weight. I reset my goals last Sunday. My new goal is to lose another six pounds and lower my BMI one more point by January 29th. I CAN DO IT! And, I WILL DO IT!

Happy New Year, everyone!!

I hope everyone had a happy, fun and safe Christmas and New Year.

We had a very nice, quiet Christmas here at home. I wanted a Christmas at home this year, as much as I would have loved to spend it with our family. We travelled the last two Christmases and we have travelled a lot just this year besides the holidays. I wanted to end the year relaxed without having it rush around here and there and back home. We did have our friends, the Schaefers over to have dinner with us and I had a gift for everyone, too.

I did all my baking and deliveries the Sunday before Christmas. Last year, I did 10 treats and I had narrowed in down to 6 and then as Christmas creeped closer it moved up to 13! Here is what I made that are traditional: Peanut Butter Balls, Spritz, Lemon Bells, Gumdrop Fudge (2 different kinds-cherry, lime vanilla & the regular), Chocolate Fruitcake, Cranberry Swirl Biscotti and iced Pumpkin Cookies. The new ones I tried this year and will most likely make it next year too are: Oreo Cookie Balls, homemade Caramels, St. Nick's Dove Sticks, Chocolate-Filled Cookie Bonbons, Cosmo Cocktail Cookie Bars and Peppermint bark-regular and one with a semisweet chocolate base. I baked for a whole week, three to four things each day until I got everything done on Friday. I had eight trays to do. We delivered a few trays on Saturday and the rest on Sunday. I've hear great reviews of everything and I have another new favorite-Cosmo Cocktail Cookie Bars. All the recipes are fantastic, but these are just so light and refreshing. A great contrast to all the sticky, sweet, richness of all the other goodies on the tray and that we eat throughout the season.

Christmas Eve, I cooked out little 11 pound turkey, green bean casserole, rolls, stuffing, potatoes and gravy. Christmas day, I made my Brown Sugar Pineapple Ham and broccoli salad. Everything was wonderful. For dessert, I have a pumpkin roll I made a few days earlier and the cherry pie I made at the beginning of the week, plus a pumpkin pie our neighbors made for us and a chocolate silk pie that I bought. We had dinner, visited awhile, opened gifts, ate dessert and then ended the evening watching Salt.

Perhaps we cheated a bit when it came to opening gifts, but it was Christmas day. We got to bed so late, that is was almost 2am, and Jarom and I decided to open them before bed and sleep in. Jarom really spoiled me this year. We agreed on a $50 dollar limit and he went way over, while I still haven't been able to finish his embroidered shirts. I finished on last week and got one done yesterday, but I still have three more polo shirts and a t-shirt to do. He bought me some Australian sheepskin boots, in lieu of the Uggs I wanted, Cricut ultimate accessory kit, iTunes giftcard and the EA Sports Active starter kit and supplement workout accessories. We got a couple movies from his parents and socks. Jarom also got some clothes and I got the soundtracks for New Moon and Eclipse. Jason drew my name this year and he bought me a Cricut cartridge and Paul had Jarom and he gave him a nice polo. My sister and Dan spoiled us with some really cool travel mugs, DVD, candy, CD and a couple giftcards. My parents send each $100. I bought the YourStory Bookbinder & Laminator and the new (not even in stores until spring and out of stock online) YourStory Photo Personal Binder from ProvoCraft from Cricut.com and HSN, respectively. Jarom bought a new stock for one of his guns.

We had a great day and enjoyed how relaxed everything was. New Year's was extremely quiet and relaxed, too. We stayed home and didn't do anything. I watched a couple movies while Jarom slept and then he got up and stayed up until midnight rolled around. I was so tired that I got really sleepy around 11pm, so I was lucky to make it to midnight.

Now, I'm just trying to get Jarom's shirts done and studying for the CBEST. I am taking the test on February 5th-also the say of our combined birthday party with our neighbor, Leanne. I've planned a Wii birthday party for the three of us and I just know it will be a blast!

This is an awesome site for shoes, jewelry and handbags and it is personalized just for you. Each month, you will receive your personalized selections and you can choose to buy or not. The best thing, everything is $39.95!! Even better, if you don't like the selections they make for you, you can look at other styles that aren't in your personal showroom. And it is all the fabulous idea of Kim Kardashian, a style icon.

I have not bought anything yet, but once I'm teaching and earning a paycheck again I will treat myself to some new shoes every couple months. I have many favorites.

This is my personal link, if you want to sign up and buy some fabulous fashions:

http://www.shoedazzle.com/invite/lwqzdp0qp

You can sign up and post your own link and invite your own friends and family to join. When they do and three people have purchased something, you will get a credit for a free pair of shoes, purse or jewelry! And who doesn't like free shoes?? Or free jewelry? Or a free purse?

Trophy Dad Shirt


Dragon Shirt


Hat Box Lids


Hat Boxes

Fishing at the Lake


Fishing Out of Water


Fish Shirt


Elk Shirt #1


Elk Shirt #2


Duck Shirt-My Favorite


Cabin Shirt

Red & Gold Star Necklace and Earring set


Dragonfly Ribbon Necklace & Earring Set in Purple & Blue


Dragonfly Ribbon Necklace & Earring Set in Purple & Turquoise


Fiath-Hope-Love Bracelet Trio


Hummingbird Ribbon Necklace


Heart Charm Bracelet Trio


Butterfly Ribbon Necklace & Earring Set


Black & Silver Ankle Bracelet

And I'm almost ready. I have all the boxes ready to ship out tomorrow and by the garage door. I just need to put them in my car for the morning. The thing I need to figure out is how I'm going to get then all into the post office in one trip by myself.
After the post office to mail off packages and Christmas cards, I have plans to hit the grocery store to buy what I need to do my baking and cooking. I'm starting my baking today with Peanut Butter balls, because I have everything I need for them already. I might make the Spritz cookies today, too, but we'll see how long it takes me to do the Peanut Butter Balls. I'll bake tomorrow afternoon and through the week until I'm done. I have 10 treats I'm making this year and I'll post the recipes as I get them done and have time, but they will all be up by Christmas. Two a day is good and then I can deliver our treat trays on Sunday, but you never know. I could do more than that if time allows.
After the baking, I still have some shirts to do, but they shouldn't take long. That is once I decide what designs to do.
Our Christmas Eve dinner is going to be turkey and ham with stuffing, rolls and green beans. Christmas Day dinner, I'm following Culpepper tradition with a prime rib, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad and rolls. I'm going to make breakfast after we open gifts-candied bacon, hashbrowns, eggs and waffles. I'm going to make a pumpkin roll for dessert and pick up a chocolate silk pie and a cherry pie for Jarom.
I'm excited for Christmas but I wish we lived closer to family so we could spend the holidays with them. But we were really blessed to be able to spend Christmas and New Years with family the last two years in Oregon and this year I just wanted to stay home in our house. I had hopes family would come to us, but now such luck. Oh well. It will still be a nice Christmas and really relaxed.
I've been working on an afghan for my sister but it's just too much for me to get done before Christmas. I didn't start soon enough. I've been making jewelry and I've made some of my best pieces, ever, I think. I've embroidered a number of shirts and painted two. Hat boxes decoupaged. As I finished everything, I wrapped them and put them under the tree. Now, our tree looks sad with most of the gifts packed and ready to ship. Guess I better get busy on Jarom's stuff so it doesn't look so bare.
I hope everyone is having a great season filled with happiness and joy.

I am a little closer to being done with Christmas. I have two gifts to finish that are on the "to be shipped" list; a necklace and an afghan. I have until next Wednesday to complete them. I know I can get the necklace done, but I'm really stressing about the afghan. Jarom had to remind me last night that when I make gifts I'm supposed to enjoy myself and I'm starting to stress too much and not have any fun anymore. He reassured me that if I don't get the afghan done we can buy something, and I can send the afghan later. Not really what I want to do, but I think that may just be what will happen. I started early this year, but not quite early enough. Oh well. I also had to scrap the table runners for our moms and those will be their Mother's Day gifts and the necklaces that were going to be Mother's Day gifts are now their Christmas gifts. And, sadly, I had to resort to boxed Christmas cards this year. My stitched beaded cards take about 1 1/2 hours to do each and when you have about 120 to do, it is a big time investment, so I will work on them throughout 2011 and they will be our card next year.

I've been burning the candle at both ends the last few weeks, too. And, Jarom reminded me that if I'm not careful, I will get sick.

All the gifts that are complete are just about all wrapped. I have about half a dozen more to wrap tonight that are done, after I'm done here that is. The rest of this week i will be working hard on that afghan and the necklace won't take much time at all to do. Tomorrow, I'm making a pumpkin roll for Jarom's Christmas party on Friday and one for our neighbors. I want to give them a day to really set up, so I thought I'd do it tomorrow instead of Thursday.

Next Thursday, I will get everything over to the post office and shipped off to their various destinations. I'll get all the grocery shopping done for my baking and Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner. I have 10 treats to make for our treat tray and I wasn't going to make anything new this year but I found three new recipes that sound fantastic and can't pass up-Oreo Cookie Balls, Cosmo Cookie Bars and Chocolate Filled Cookie Bonbons. They sound scrumptious! Those are in addition to my "old" regulars and "new" regulars from last year-Lemon Bells, Peanut Butter Balls, Spritz Cookies, Gumdrop Fudge, Cranberry Swirl Biscotti and Chocolate Fruitcake. MMMM! Yummy! I can't wait! I think this is what I'm really looking forward too and why I'm losing steam on making gifts; but I can't do my baking too early or they will go bad, so I'll start them all next weekend.

I've pretty much got our dinner list ready for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners. We'll have all the traditional sides, but this year we are having turkey and ham on Christmas Eve for dinner and prime rib (Culpepper family tradition) for Christmas Day dinner. And I'll do that shopping next week, too, when I get everything for my baking.

And that is what has been happening the last couple weeks-working on gifts, creating grocery lists, crossing things off lists and so on.

Happy Holidays, everyone!!!

Once again, this it's been awhile since my last post. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving. Although we had to travel, we didn't have to travel out of state, only about 3 hours south to Santa Cruz/Watsonville. We stayed at my Aunt Tracy and Uncle Dustin's house and had a great time. Thanksgiving and our days and evenings were spent at Aunt Teresa's in Watsonville. There were 18 of us this year. It was a bit cramped but it was cozy. I so love my family. I am so blessed with a big loving family that gets along well, and a fantastic husband. Two dogs and I cat I love and whom love me very much, a home, clothing on my back, food to eat, and great friends-and that is just the beginning of so many blessings I'm blessed with. I could never name or count all of them.

The days were spend together playing games, eating, of course, visiting, watching football and a little shopping early Saturday morning at Joann's in Salinas. I took a pre-made quilt with me for all of us to design a square with oil pastels and set it with a hot dry iron. I took an couple ornament kits too, but we didn't make them as a group, so I gave one to Coley and sent the other home with Madison and Emily. I tried to work on our card fronts but I only completed one and a half, so I have more than enough work cut out to do to get them done. I had hoped to get about 30 done to send in the envelopes with the finished family calendar and family address sheet that I finally finished. Mom and Dad were kind enough to take the Oregon calendars home with them and Uncle Derek & Aunt Michelle the Utah ones. It only took me a year and a half to finish the family calendar but they are done and all are out except for 4, which will go out in the mail when I mail our gifts on December 15th.

I forgot to take our camera so I don't have any personal pictures, but Coley took plenty and they will soon be on Facebook and I can transfer some over here in a few days.

I know tonight I should be working on Christmas gifts, but I have yet to put up out Christmas tree and decorations. This is the latest I've ever decorated. If they are not up the day after Thanksgiving they always go up the weekend after and here we are almost a week later and they are just sitting in the storage bins in the living room waiting for me. When I'm done, it's back to work on Christmas stuff. Tomorrow, hopefully I will get out and finish what shopping I have left for gifts/stocking stuffers and supplies for gifts and baking.

I'm not doing any new Christmas treats this year. Last year, I tried a number of new recipes and through that experience I found holiday recipes for this year and the years to come: Peanut Butter Balls, Chocolate Truffles, Lemon Bells, Gumdrop Fudge, Iced Pumpkin Cookies, Cranberry Biscotti, Spritz, and Chocolate Fruitcake.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, too!

Hillary, Coley & Me


Coley & Tori-Tori got frosting on Coley's Nose


Our Family (And this is only about half of us)


Coley & Me


Whitney, Ada (our newest cousin) & Coley


Coley, Emily & Me (on a mission for some flowers and headpiece for Tori)

Cousins!


First Hug As Husband & Wife


Little Johnathen with my Mom & Dad


Tori, the beautiful flower girl


The G Crew


The CHAD

I'm sorry to all our friends and family that regularly read our blog, for not being very good at keeping this up-to-date. It has been a busy summer, as I said before in my last entry with weddings and making wedding gifts. It has been a good season for our family-full of weddings and engagements-lots of happy times. I'm still working on wedding gifts-I have fallen behind on completing them and getting them out. Today, was Chad and Kylie's wedding in the Salt Lake Temple. I had hoped to go but with others things going on, I just couldn't make it. We have one more wedding in December, but not only do I have that wedding gift to do, but I have four others to do. I thin I've fallen behind because I've gotten a little burned out with all the gift making, but I'm back up and working to get them done.

Once I get the last five wedding gifts completed, I have Christmas to get going on and I need to get busy. I have been burning a slide show to DVD for my family from my Grandpa's funeral last year. I know-it has taken me a long time to get them burned and ready to go out. I've also been working on a family calendar and address book. With all the weddings and new family additions, it is time to get everyone updated. I have 27 to make and mail by the year's end. I'm plan to make our Christmas card this year, too, and I plan for it to be a stitched card. Finally, I have to decide what to do for Christmas gifts this year. I have ideas, but I haven't sat and drawn everything out and made a plan.

As if I don't have enough I'm trying to get done, but I'm still looking for a job. I spend a couple hours each day looking and applying for jobs. I don't know if I'm applying for jobs I'm overqualified for or if I'm under qualified or if employers are weary because I haven't worked for two years. I know the market is still tight, but I haven't even received a call, just emails that my resume/application has been received. I've also picked up my studying for the CBEST too. Teaching is my dream and I need to just go for it. I won't ever be really happy working if I don't do what I love and teaching is what I love.

That is about it, other than hanging out with the neighbors on the weekends out front while the kids play in the cul-de-sac. Now, stay tuned for pictures from some of summer's biggest events for our family.

I can't believe it had been almost five months since I last posted anything. My, time flies when you are staying busy.

We have be staying busy with family activities and the next two months are filled with weddings and traveling to attend them. In between then, we have family visiting us too. First, my Uncle Derek and Aunt Michelle with be here with Blake, Madison, Emily and Porter for the Track & Field Championships that are in Sacramento this year at Sac City College. Emily is the only one this year to make it to the Championships and I'm a very proud cousin-of all of them of course, since this is for the Junior Olympics. Blake was injured or he'd be running too; such a bummer. This trip for them is also a family vacation so we plan to have dinner one night and I'll watch Em run, but I don't plan to take up all their family time. Aunt Teresa and Uncle Paylor will hopefully still come down, too and we will probably do a breakfast on Sunday before everyone heads home.

Just three days after that is all over, Jarom's parents will be flying in for a week long visit. No plans, but then we don't usually have any. We fly by the seat of our pants. They will leave on a Wednesday and I will turn around on Friday and drive with Aunt Teresa and Coley to Utah for my cousin, Kylie's wedding. I'm very excited! I had planned to fly but Aunt texted last week and said her and Coley were going and so now it's a Girls Road Trip!

At the end of August, the High Tech's new building is being dedicated and we will be in attendance to that. Oh, next weekend we are camping at Meadow Lake with friends. Labor day weekend we will be in Prineville, OR for my brother-in-law's wedding. The following week, we are supposed to be in Vegas fro a friends' wedding, but unfortunately, I just don't think with all the travelling and activities going on that we can reasonably afford it. I'd so love to be there with all our friends to celebrate. But let's face it, they all live near their families and don't have to travel out of state much-not like us and so money isn't as much of an issue for them as us, unfortunately.

June was pretty quiet. July 2 my cousins were here for an overnight visit on their way back home from Southern California. Well, my cousin, John, his fiance, Katie and her son, Josh were here. They are planning on getting married next summer sometime, I think. They've only been engaged a short time so they haven't really thought about a date. It was awesome to have them stop since we are just of I-5 and that was the highway they were travelling. Katie and I are a lot alike and we got along famously. We could talk for hours and we did just that. John and Jarom are the same. Josh and I had fun. He played the Wii Fit and then Mario Bros. We had steak, potatoes, rolls, green salad and fruit for dinner and dessert was my Strawberry Shortcake cookies* and/or Chocolate Silk Pie. Josh and I made him a foam bulletin board and then we colored some canvas fabric puppets I had on hand. I felt bad, because it was almost midnight when we went to bed. I knew they wanted to leave early, so I didn't plan to keep them up late. We all just talked so much we lost track of time. I made us breakfast of french toast, brown sugar bacon and fruit in the morning. I was up at 4am so they could get on the road by 5, but I don't think they got out of her until 6am. Oops. :o) Jarom and I left around noon to head down to Watsonville for the 4th holiday. We had a lot of fun-Aunt Teresa had a fairly large party and all the family here was together for fireworks and dessert. (*I created a cookie recipe-that is my Strawberry Shortcake Cookie-I have yet to share the actual recipe with anyone but a few select individuals in my family, but I will soon. I may enter a contest with it-it is my neighbor's new favorite cookie and I have other ideas for cookies, with different ingredients.)

Last weekend, the neighbors had a birthday pool party for Madysen and Trenton. Trenton turned 2 on the 4th and Madysen 5 on the 7th. It was a lot of fun-started at 11am and went until about 6 or 7pm. I even put on a suit and got in the pool. I had a lot of fun with all the kids. I had Trenton a lot. He wanted to be in the pool with all the kids but not just on the step, so he would bounce with me then he wanted to jump in to me. He'd jump in and bounce up and down a bit and then want me to lift him up onto the edge so he could jump back in to me. At one point he was with one of the other girls and got a hold of a water missile, filled it with water and pointed it right at me with a big grim and released the water. What could I do but laugh. I got quite a sunburn though. I sued my sunscreen and kept putting it on but I think I need to move up the SPF from 30 to 100. ;o) I was trying to be so careful. I am now peeling and it itches, but at least I have some color other than my pasty white.

During the week, I'm applying for jobs and finishing projects. I have a wedding quilt to finish and other wedding gifts started that need finishing before wedding in the couple months. A lot are embroidery projects. I'm teaching the YW how to cook some authentic Guamanian dishes on the 28th.

I've decided I'm ready to go back to work. I've been off my antidepressant for a year now and I'm doing really good. My sleeping habits would get better if I had a job again. It doesn't have to be full-time but if it is the right job, I wouldn't mind it. I'm ready to get out of the house and meet new people. I don't much leave the house. It would be nice to have a little more disposable income again, too. It would allow us to do a bit more, although we are doing well on the one income. All around it would be good for me to work again, I don't' have much reason to stay home without children. I'm really excited about a couple I applied for last week, but we will see what happens. There isn't much out there and a lot people applying for the same positions so it is very competitive. This is our one weekend we have nothing going on-a breather before all the activity starts up again-more for me than Jarom, but he has to work all week.

I guess I'll go have some cereal and start working on a wedding project that needs worked on and get it done, so I can work on the next one and the quilt later today.

Happy Summer, everyone!!

Yes, I still have unpacked boxes...even after almost two years. The last couple weekends, Jarom and I have been trying to finally finish unpacking what boxes we have left in the garage and deciding to put things away in the house or donate the items to charity. About a month ago, i cleaned out my closet and dresser drawers and eliminated about half of the clothing I had-we donated that and some other household things (kitchen items, etc.) to the VA. They were coming around the following week to do a pick-up, so it worked out great!

Jarom has found my stash of candles amongst other things. This weekend we brought in the big box full of all my Barbie Collector Dolls. I brought Madysen over this afternoon and showed them all to her. She just kept saying, "Ooh. Aah." I ended up giving her the 10th Anniversary Holiday Barbie Collector Doll and a Tea Party Barbie Collector doll. It was a tough conversation and lesson for her to learn that they have to stay in the box and not to play with them because they are "special" dolls. She wanted to have a tea party with them. To solve that dilemma, I invited her over next weekend to have a tea party with me, suing the tea set my Grandma painted for me when I was about Madysen's age. I will substitute tea with apple juice and we will have Snickerdoodle cookies or chocolate chip cookies-whichever I make while Jarom's parents are here this weekend, too.

In addition to all my Barbies, Jarom found a huge box with all the missing sheets and blankets. We have been wondering we donated them accidentally at some point last summer, but he found them. They've all been washed, folded and put away too. He is so great!

I have been missing most of my craft books and asked if he had come across it, yet. he told me no, so we went out before watching our movie to see if we could find the box. It was the first one Jarom looked in. This box was huge too! We had to transfer its contents to a Rubbermaid tote and bring it in in two loads. I've sorted through it all and it is all compacted into on Rubbermaid load. I have a pile for donation, a pile to shred and a pile to recycle. One day this week, I am devoting to my craft room to reorganize and put all my craft books away, along with a box of stamp pads that I've been wondering if I accidentally donated too. I'm so excited!

Jarom and I watched "Law Abiding Citizen" this afternoon. It wasn't too bad. I was with Madysen during part of it so I missed about half of it. What I did see wasn't bad.....interesting. Tonight, we are going to watch "Couple's Retreat" when Jarom gets home from work.

For dinner this evening, I made a roast pork loin seasoned with garlic, paprika, Lawry's season salt and black pepper. I baked it for about an hour at 350 degrees and it was juicy and oh so yummy. We had baked potatoes with it since I didn't give it any thought as to sides until Jarom asked what we were going to have with it. I made Cocoa Rice Krispies treats for dessert.

I sat down and worked out exactly what I've cooking for meals while Jarom's parents are here. They arrive Thursday and leave next Tuesday, so I needed to plan breakfasts, lunches, dinners and desserts, as well as snacks. I have pot roast planned one night with veggies and fresh made bread; pork dumplings, stir fry veggies and rice; turkey & jack chimichangas and salad; chicken fettuccine and salad; stuffed skirt steaks, baked potatoes and fresh baked bread for dinners. Lunches are going to be very simple-sandwiches with chips, soups and/or leftovers. For breakfasts: waffles; cereal/toast; bacon, eggs, hashbrown potatoes; trail mix muffins; cinnamon orange sweet rolls. As far as snacks go, I have chips and salsa, snack mix, pistachios, and some fruit. For desserts: cookies-various kinds; cookies & creme freezer cake; rice krispy treats; grilled vanilla peaches and ice cream or frozen yogurt. They are meat and potatoes type of people so some of my meal plans are a bit bold, but they should be used to that by now. If they don't like it they will find something else to eat.

I did all this sorting and planning while watching "Law Abiding Citizen" and recorded movies on the DVR from this weekend that were on ABC Family: "My Fake Fiance", "The Wedding Date", "The Karate Kid" and "The Karate Kid II". The dogs have kept me company. I just copied "The Potty Dance" to a DVD-R disc for the neighbor from Pull-Ups. Mr. Trenton is talking about going potty and he goes into the bathroom, but after he has already gone in his diaper. He will soon be learning to go on the toilet and this fun song and dance will hopefully help and continue to encourage him. I've known about the song and dance for about a year. I saw it featured on a show last year while flipping one day when it was really hot outside. The last few weeks, I've seen it in a couple of my magazines, well pictures of the steps to the song and it reminded me of it. I told Leanne about it and I've given her the page out of the magazine and a copy of the video that I downloaded from the site. You can find the video at: www.pull-ups.com.

It's been busy but productive weekend and I suppose now I should get to bed so that I can get up at a decent hour and not sleep the day away.

Finally, this weekend we celebrated with my family, out birthdays. It was low-key and I really dropped the ball as far as my meal and activity planning. It was very relaxed. I just did sandwiched, chips and salsa and carrots for lunch; spaghetti, salad and garlic bread for dinner. I made lemon bars and cheesecake for dessert and we had champagne, apple-pomegranate sparkling cider and Merlot.

After all, we weren't just celebrating our birthdays. We were celebrating Coley and Victor's engagement. Coley's ring is gorgeous and they are so happy and excited. I did a toast to them last night at dinner and then Coley did a toast to Jarom and I for our birthdays.

We made a quick trip to Target to get a specific game everyone wanted to play. The Investigation Discovery channel was on all day until just before dinner when it was changed to the Olympics. We all got to visit and laugh and just be together and celebrate all of the little and BIG moments in life.

Aunt Tracy and Uncle Dustin gave me a fun appetizer cookbook. I can't wait have something to try some of the recipe out on and they gave Jarom a grilling cookbook. I'm always looking for new recipes for the grill, too.

Aunt Tracy and Uncle Dustin had to leave in the evening to get back home to Duke, but it was great of them to come out just for the day. I was so happy they came, because it is kind of a drive for just a day trip.

This morning, us girls went to JoAnn's and returned home just in time for lunch. After I got everyone situated for lunch, I started cookies. I told Victor I'd make him some fresh Snickerdoodles and then Jarom wanted his Oatmeal Cranberry cookies, so I spent the next couple hours in the kitchen making cookies while the rest of them played Phase 10 and watched the Olympics.

The dogs loved all the attention and treats they got, too. After everyone left, Jarom, the dogs and I took a nap, did laundry (which I'm still doing) and I'm updating my blogs. It was a laid back weekend. Nothing spectacular but I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I have a lot planned to do and work on this week.

Today, I feel better than I have in 4 weeks. The phlegm and congestion seems to be all gone. No coughing and my voice sounds more normal again--and all just overnight. Just Saturday I was still having cough fits when I laughed. It's great! I feel great! Jarom bought me "Just Dance" for the Wii and I'm so excited to start dancing with it and getting this weight off, with the Wii, "Just Dance" and "Wii Fit". I haven't worked out at all this year because of this cold and now it's gone and I can get busy!!

Well, it wasn't my idea of a great Valentine's Day but it was okay. It wasn't horrible and I spent time with the munchkins next door for a few hours. I told Leanne and Wallace to take advantage of the fact that Jarom was out of town to have a Valentine's date without the kids. They took me up on that offer and went to lunch together and a winery.

I spent Friday night and Saturday working on Valentine's Day projects making gifts and cards for the kids. I had fun learning projects for them to color and learn with and made fun foam message boards for each of them; in addition to a few other little things-a wooden plane for Trenton that I painted and put together myself. Madysen colored a flower pot and I gave her some seeds to plant in it, too. I made some fun little cards with the cricut, glitter glue, and stickers. I had a lot of fun doing it all and putting it all together. When they returned from their date, they brought me some beautiful flowers-pink and white carnations, heirloom roses, lilies, etc. Beautiful!

Madysen and Trenton and I had fun on our own, too. We colored and played games and had our tickle wars like we do every time we are together.

I gave Leanne her belated birthday gift too. I made a few pairs of earrings for her and gave a devotional book and some hand lotion.

My sweetheart made it home before midnight from Oregon. He had to leave suddenly to take care of some things at his parent's home and it took him away for the last half of the week. When he came in he had a dozen red roses, bottle of champagne and two of my favorite magazines. All I gave him was some chocolate, which I owe him some more because I had a HUGE craving and dug into his. Thankfully, Monday was a holiday for Jarom and I had the whole day together, but we spent it mostly in bed. He was exhausted and I was still fighting this crap. the cold part was gone but I was still battling this horrible cough and congestion and phlegm. I couldn't even laugh without having a coughing fit, but at least I got to spend that extra day with him before he went back to work.